Surviving Injury

We’ve all been there. Some of us repeatedly so.

Sticking plaster image

Injury is bad for you…

No matter what your injury, there is plenty of practical advice out there for speeding your recovery, preventing re-occurance, releasing, strengthening, stretching… etc.

This page is not about how to fix your injury – it’s about how to cope with it.

Links to Good Stuff

When you are injured it can take a superlative effort to remain positive. This page aims to share awareness and strategies – so please, tell us yours…

“The days you missed aren’t important. What’s important is what you do from here on out — and that will be something great!” ( from ZenHabits)

“So what happens to all of these psychological goodies when you’re suddenly sidelined by an injury? To put it simply, you become overwhelmed by a variety of internal and external losses.”

Supporting article : 3 Mental Skills to help Athletes Recover from Injury

“You can choose to focus on what you’re missing out on or choose to look forward to what you will accomplish.”

Link to source article: Using Mental Skills to Speed Recovery

“Punishing early morning workouts and weekend suffer sessions can seem like child’s play compared to the uncertainty of knowing if and when you will race again” 

Link to source article: USA Triathlon

“Yet for Allison Lind, the best silver lining was rediscovering her love of the sport. “I tell all of my injured patients, ‘Just wait. You’re going to appreciate running so much more,’ she says.”

Allison Lind was training to qualify for the Olympic Trials when injury struck; Source article: 4 Ways to Stay Positive Through Injury

A Black Dog Stalks the Injury Bench

Image of a Black DogFrom this injury bench over the past few weeks I’ve seen my fellow club runners increase their speeds, increase their distances and achieve repeated PBs. Have I celebrated their success? A bit. But I’ve also been miserably aware that I’ve lost form whilst they’ve gained it.

Participation in the events I am registered for over the next few months is now in jeopardy. Have I asked the organisers for a deferment, and offered my services as a marshal? No. I just keep hoping, forlornly, for a sudden miracle cure – and regard the registration fees as a lost gamble – with the associated guilt at my own extravagance.

I have tried to break out of this despondency. I have been assured that all runners come back smarter, stronger, more appreciative of their sport, and more aware of their strengths and weaknesses. And I can see that that’s true. But then I think about the months or years that it could take… (gloom, gloom, gloom).
Today, however, I strapped my injury and did my prescribed physio exercises with a new enthusiasm and optimism. I made a real effort to focus on all the good stuff that I can do – rather than what I can’t. And I am holding on to an image of me returning to running again in the future. Tomorrow I’ll see if I can defer those race places.

And what’s brought about this sudden improvement? Absolutely nothing to do with cellular repair – more, a recognition of what I’m dealing with; the sheer despondency associated with injury.
 
Sport is, as they say, a great revealer of character.
If that’s true then recent response to injury might reveal me to be mean-spirited and dismal. But I am neither of those things. I am simply injured – and had no idea that such negativity can, in fact, be a perfectly normal response.

So, what’s my point in writing all this? A humble warning. If anyone else out there finds themselves sat on the injury bench, just be aware that the Black Dog of depression is often nearby. He tends to pick on those who are not expecting him.”
Lymm Runner

 

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